Get Your Hands On Vena Cava For Aqua

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We're glad to see the Target trend trickling upward: the very idea of Vena Cava and decidedly non-cheap Bloomingdale's collabing on a lower price point line was much to our liking. But what about the reality? We checked out the "hot off the press" collection at Santa Monica Place.

They still have all the pieces in a variety of sizes despite the fact that the collection has been on the sales floor since at least last Thursday. The corner of pink, blue and black is hard to miss, especially with all the ruffles and mesh sticking out from the racks surrounding a table stacked with gray furry vests.

Since Aqua is a lower-end (relatively speaking) house collection for Bloomingdale's, we weren't expecting really amazing quality stuff. But the cheap look and feel of the fabrics made us feel like we were shopping at Forever 21. The fringed skirts were hot messes, with bits and pieces hanging awkwardly half-on-half-off the garment. We did appreciate that it was made from a stretchy material. The two-tone, one-shoulder dress was flattering on us and draped nicely, but the jersey-on-top version was decidedly cheap in look and feel. The fringed camisole was cute (and didn't photograph well at all), the coats and jackets looked well-tailored but had some messy stitching around the buttons. The prints on the chiffon ruffle dresses were unique and flattering but the studded tanks and bottoms were sheer and cheap-looking.

Overall, we loved the prints and the coats and jackets, but we'll definitely be waiting for these items to go on sale before we even consider buying them. Although price points are already under $200, most are still over $100—way more than we're willing to spend on this.
· Vena Cava for Aqua at Bloomingdale's [Official Site]